It's a barn, not an MRI...
Posted on 05/31/2016 2:21:43 PM PDT by huldah1776
When healthcare is expensive, the Amish culture of autonomy and thrift may be a way to balance communal support and individual responsibility. Sara Talpos finds out more.
The Allegheny Plateau, sprawling across northern Pennsylvania and beyond, is an ecosystem of forested hills, with land that supports black bears, bald eagles and wandering turkeys, as well as a patchwork of wild herbs: burdock, jewelweed, chamomile and sheep sorrel. Cellphone reception is spotty and gas stations are few and far between. Tucked away among the streams branching from the Cowanesque river is a cluster of small white and tan buildings, including the office of John Keim, an Amish elder and community healer.
***snip***
Keim and his wife treated their son at home. Initially, they applied a salve of herbs and wrapped the wounds with gauze, but the gauze sunk into the boy’s flesh. They needed a dressing that wouldn’t stick.
In his book Comfort for the Burned and Wounded Keim writes, “I thought of how God created the Earth. I honestly felt He kept the poor in mind while Earth was being created.” He tried to think of things in nature that might help a poor person treat burns. Hitting upon waxy plantain leaves, he gathered a hatful from a nearby field, scalded them so they would be pliable, and used them to wrap his son’s wounds with a layer of herbal salve. Within five days, new skin covered the boy’s body. He had survived.
(Excerpt) Read more at mosaicscience.com ...
Reporter interviewing Indian Medicine Man —
“Do you get referrals from regular doctors?”
“Yes, I do.”
“What kind of referrals?”
“Terminal cases and slow-pay.”
It's a barn, not an MRI...
In these parts (the Amish community in Ohio is supposedly larger than in Pennsylvania) go into the ER of any of the hospitals in Canton or Akron, nearest cities to the rolling green hill counties where the Amish are concentrated, and it’s likely you’ll see some women in bonnets and their neck bearded menfolk in breeches and suspenders. At least the ones in this State are aware and take full advantage of modern medicine.
You're going to check my what?
With a title talking about the Amish you just knew that someone would bring in race...
Amish women have a high rate of Tuberculosis .
I’m retired now, but my office did the tax returns for over 500 horse & buggy farmers each year. More than once I saw Amish take out mortgages to pay $100,000 hospital bills for children who died while being treated. Sad to see what often happens when they do use the ER and get caught up in the current process of factory medicine.
That just about brings a tear to my eye. It is great to see so many craftsmen working efficiently to do great work in a short amount of time.
I am wondering if they framed that all out in one day.
Most assuredly, yes.
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